Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

The wiggle test is best.

When you wiggle the wheel and the front end fails to respond...

Slow down until it does.

Yer on ice.

Steers sliding, not rolling until front end responds.

 

Tonight also birthday of Hoagy Carmichael, born Bloomington, Indiana.

Up a Lazy River

Star Dust

etc.

Died Rancho Mirage, CA.

Not my flavor musically.

Local icon.

 

Bloomington, IN to Cincy and back, especially from midnight on, hauling USPS (mail) no one else around so wiggling frequently and often. Plus no weight in the trailer to help hold the road.

Just wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

Popped horn a lot in spots would usually see deer, too.

The engine, the horn. They run from that.

Lights, not at all.

But it's hardly possible to be fast enough on the horn when they do pop up.

Straighten it up and hope they make it.

Every mail box or jutting out tree stump ahead a faux deer out of nowhere.

Then it's not. Whew!

Ice doesn't bother me near as much as deer.

Got no wiggle test for 'em.



/Yes, you did didn't you!! Never hit one and that was my biggest fear about the job. Lots and lots of close calls. Somehow they just had enough oomph to get by while I hit the brakes hard and held straight. E-ticket. Often all lit up in headlights, like right off the front bow. Probably sounds stupid but for weeks I would slow down, stop, sometimes even get out for a young skunk that ran right into my left side front lugs. Killed him so fast there was no smell. But somehow he made it out just past the fog line on that side. Too far to be thrown, I think. Just a kid. Hate that. Weather was cold and he hardly deteriorated and the scavengers left him alone, too.

My little nightly vigil, nightly condolences. To a skunk.

Ode to an odorless skunk!

(Snowplow finally pushed him into snow bank.)

So I stopped visiting.

G'nite.



//Blu, you wiggle only enough for a response and if it doesn't respond right off you quickly let off, wiggle again and continue to let off to slow and wiggle like that until you're good. The wiggle is just that, short, tight wiggle of the steering so if on ice you're still staying straight. Curve ahead? Wiggle now. RIGHT now. Becomes second nature. Wiggle all the way home. Just like the three piggies!

 

Yeah, tow has his own, special deer-hunting technique.



/14 degrees out right now. High predicted today 27. Girls (chickens) much better with cold than I expected. But why not?? Coop not quite done yet. Enjoyed working on it most of yesterday despite 30 degree weather. Insulated monkey suit, of course! Won't be that warm today!! Bruised back ribs starting to heal, finally. Still hurt, almost feels good (sometimes), itchy-like.

//High as it's gonna get today at 26. Really beautiful and crisp out, very sunny and bright. Dogs barked on the back deck at a couple deer on the ridge, not concerned about my dogs or hunting season. Safe, too, up there from tow's plastic front bumper. Have Cascadia, will get deer...